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Daily Archives: May 14, 2013

EIA – United Kingdom Country Analysis Brief

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The United Kingdom is the largest producer of oil and the second-largest producer of natural gas in the European Union

  • The United Kingdom (UK) is the largest producer of oil and the second-largest producer of natural gas in the European Union (EU). Following years of exports of both fuels, the UK became a net importer of natural gas and crude oil in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Production from UK oil and natural gas fields peaked in the late 1990s and has declined steadily over the past several years, as the discovery of new reserves and new production have not kept pace with the maturation of existing fields. The UK government, aware of the country’s increasing reliance on imported fuels, has developed key energy policies to address the domestic production declines. These include: using enhanced recovery from current and maturing oil and gas fields, promoting energy efficiency, decreasing the use of fossil fuels and thus reliance on imports, promoting energy trade cooperation with Norway, and decarbonizing the UK economy by investing heavily in renewable energy. However, for the UK to decarbonize its economy, huge investments in the energy infrastructure are needed.”

    • IRS IG – Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Organizations for Review

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    Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review, Report Date: 05/14/2013. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “The IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. Ineffective management: 1)… Continue Reading

    New York Fed: Household Debt and Credit Report

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    “The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Household Debt and Credit Report provides a quarterly snapshot of household trends in borrowing and indebtedness, including data about mortgages, student loans, credit cards, auto loans and delinquencies. The report aims to help community groups, small businesses, state and local governments and the public to better understand, monitor… Continue Reading

    New GAO Reports – Climate Change, Data Center Consolidation, Defense Infrastructure

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    Climate Change – Future Federal Adaptation Efforts Could Better Support Local Infrastructure Decision Makers, GAO-13-242, Apr 12, 2013 Data Center Consolidation – Strengthened Oversight Needed to Achieve Billions of Dollars in Savings, GAO-13-627T, May 14, 2013 Data Center Consolidation – Strengthened Oversight Needed to Achieve Cost Savings Goal, GAO-13-378, Apr 23, 2013 Defense Infrastructure –… Continue Reading

    FTC Issues Annual Financial Acts Enforcement Letter to CFPB

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    News release: “The Federal Trade Commission has issued its annual letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on FTC enforcement and related activities regarding the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Consumer Leasing Act (CLA), Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). This year’s letter also discusses the Dodd-Frank Act, and… Continue Reading

    Creating a Safer Financial System: Will the Volcker, Vickers, and Liikanen Structural Measures Help?

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    Creating a Safer Financial System: Will the Volcker, Vickers, and Liikanen Structural Measures Help? Vinãls, José; Pazarbasioglu, Ceyla; Surti,Ja; Narain,Aditya; Erbenova,Michaela; Chow, Julian. May 14, 2013 “The U.S., the U.K., and more recently, the E.U., have proposed policy measures directly targeting complexity and business structures of banks. Unlike other, price-based reforms (e.g., Basel 3 and… Continue Reading

    Paper – Are elite journals declining?

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    Via arXiv.orgL: Are Elite Journals Declining? “Previous work indicates that over the past 20 years, the highest quality work have been published in an increasingly diverse and larger group of journals. In this paper we examine whether this diversification has also affected the handful of elite journals that are traditionally considered to be the best.… Continue Reading

    Fund Flows in Rational Markets

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    Franzoni, Francesco A. and Schmalz, Martin C., Fund Flows in Rational Markets (May 12, 2013). Available at SSRN “When investors are risk-averse, relative performance in downturns is more informative about managers’ ability to generate utility for investors than relative performance in upturns. Rational investors thus reallocate more wealth between funds in response to downturn-performance than… Continue Reading

    NOAA and Partners Deliver New Climate and Health Data Tool to Public

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    “This week, in conjunction with the release of the Obama Administration Open Data Policy, the interagency U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) launched a new online tool that promises to accelerate research relating to climate change and human health—the Metadata Access Tool for Climate and Health or “MATCH.” MATCH is a publicly accessible, online tool… Continue Reading